Victoria Oruwari
has the presence of a diva -on or off the stage. After her recital at
the MUSON centre, there’s just enough time to take some questions and
rest her voice for the night. The confidence with which she answers
each question is similar to her majestic stage performance: cool, calm
but in control as she melodiously turns out European classical and West
End musicals. Her accompanying pianist and fellow Trinity College
alumnus, Babatunde Sosan describes her as ‘extremely gifted’ with a
wide knowledge of instruments and music history.
Dream come true
Discovering she
could sing at the age of nine, there was no stopping Oruwari, until she
had to endure five years in secondary school, unable to study Music
because she was blind. You wonder if her dream would have survived if
she’d stayed in Nigeria. “Not so much I must say, because if I’m to be
really honest, the system here doesn’t support disabled people as much
as they do abroad. Here, for example, people are too quick to say ‘you
can’t do this, you can’t do that.’ I spent five years in Queens
College, not studying music because they said I couldn’t study it. I
got to England, all my fellow blind friends were studying music. People
don’t want to take risks because they are scared of what could go
wrong, but in England they think of a way round what could go wrong, so
there’s no can’t. They try everything possible to make sure I can go
round the stage and do all the things that I want to do. I have a dream
and they help me make it come true.”
It was not all easy, though as there were times when Oruwari felt she was fulfilling the wrong dream.
“I remember when I
was auditioning to get into Trinity College of Music, it was getting a
bit too hard and then sometimes in the middle of the course, because
the courses are so intense, your teachers have to criticise you every
time and everyday you are getting criticised about your instruments.
One day you get up and think ‘what’s the point of all this?’ but at the
end of that day, you’ll still think, ‘This is what I want to do.’ Also
coming out of school and looking for record companies; it’s very
difficult because everything depends on how the package looks.” After
trying various record companies, “You are thinking when is this going
to work?”
That was not enough
to deter the dogged Oruwari, though. With her undisputed talent, there
was no way she would let go of her dream. “One thing I didn’t do was
forget my dream. I had always wanted to be a singer from the moment I
heard (Tchaikovsky’s) ‘Once upon a dream’ from ‘Sleeping Beauty’ and
kept hold of that dream.”
Born to perform
The confidence
comes to the fore again when I ask Oruwari why she chose classical
music. “Because it is not based solely on image, you have to be good at
what you do and I like the idea of working hard at something. A lot of
popular music is not always properly done and yes, I love to listen to
it or enjoy it. But at that level, I don’t feel on the same level that
I feel when I perform classical music.”
Her role models are
stage and screen divas Julie Andrews from ‘The Sound of Music’ and
Barbara Streisand, both big-voiced women, who cannot help but captivate
any audience whenever they perform. However, I ask Oruwari why she has
chosen both artists. “Because they both had long-lasting careers and
whatever they do just seems to be perfect.”
One other thing
pleases Oruwari apart from her passion for performance. “Of course, the
performing, I was born to perform. I love teaching, don’t get me wrong,
but for me to work, the student has to be willing and wanting to learn
as much as I was willing to learn. When I’m with a very good student,
it’s the same as I feel when I’m performing. I love teaching because
whenever I help achieve something with their voice that they haven’t
achieved before, I find fulfilment in that.”
Singing for charity
Her musical skills
are also not limited to performing and teaching. “A lot of times, I
write songs and they are quite simple. Some of them are gospel, some of
them are ballads and I’m looking for a producer to put them together.
But most of the time, I’ve been focusing on my music because that’s my
strongest point. I play the piano, but not professionally. I would not
play in front of an audience as big as that (referring to the one at
the Agip Recital Hall). I would be nervous, but when I teach my
students how to sing, I play for them. So as long as I’m not the one
who’s at the centre of attention, I’ll play.”
Oruwari is also
given to doing some charity work. “I sing songs for charity. Like over
Christmas, I went to some old people’s homes in England. In winter,
it’s cold and miserable and they can’t come out with people to enjoy
all the fun that’s outside. So I thought I’ll take Christmas to them. I
also go to some outreach programmes to sing to children from very
troubled backgrounds, so I use music to inspire them. At that moment,
they are doing work with me, they are not thinking of their problems. I
also do youth music mentoring where I go to schools where children have
disabilities and I talk to them about what their dream is and I teach
them very feasible ways of achieving those dreams.”
Hers is a story of
a dream achieved and for her everyone else’s dreams should be
fulfilled. “Everybody who has a dream should keep hold of their dream.
If you have a dream, then your hard work is channelled towards that
dream. As long as you get your determination going, you’ll get to
wherever you want to be.”
She’s on the way to
being where she wants to be but Oruwari just is not done yet. “I want
to sing for the rest of my life. I want to go around releasing albums.
I would also like a recording contract with a reputable recording
company so I can record more songs. I want to be a classical crossover
singer because a lot of the time, people cannot relate to strict
classical music because it’s either quite intimidating and they don’t
really understand it.
In the future,
Oruwari hopes to perform her own works on stage. “I will produce
something. I just have to find a producer who understands my voice and
understands what I want to do with my music. It’s a hard gamble and you
just can’t pick anybody.”
She ends the
interview with a message to her audience and aspiring singers with
disabilities. “My aim with my music is to integrate people more and to
let everybody come to my concert and enjoy what they hear. I want to be
a source of inspiration to a lot of people. I have worked hard to get
to where I am and can believe that everyone else who has dreams of
another nature can achieve that through hard work.”
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